Franco Nero returns in the only official sequel to Sergio Corbucci's trendsetting Django. Twenty years later the repentant gunman has buried his past and entered a monastery, but he is rallied into action when his daughter is kidnapped by slave-driving Prussian autocrat Christopher Connelly. Captured and set to work in Connelly's silver mine, Django escapes with the help of a prisoner (a warm performance by Donald Pleasance), digs up his trusty machine gun, and returns wielding death, appropriately from the seat of a hearse. Django Strikes Again was shot in the jungles of Columbia, and the landscape only vaguely resembles the American Gulf Coast, but the lush river settings create a magnificent backdrop for the film's set piece, which features a black, armored steamship that cruises local towns for mine slaves and young girls to be sold to the bordellos. Director Ted Archer maintains the strong brutal streak that runs through the history of Italian westerns. Kids are tortured and monasteries and convents raided by Connelly's men, while Django beheads a pair of raiders with a swipe of a scythe. The carefully plotted (if at times preposterous) story and the transformation of Django from heartless mercenary lifts this from the mire of spaghetti Western sadism to create a genuinely involving film that is, at its best, better than its inspiration. Also features a short interview with Nero. --Sean Axmaker
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Almost as Worthless as the Original Comment: This brain dead remake of the same crap from Django (1966) pits a long haired older (Nero) who doesn't even seem interested in the role. From the absurd opening shot of two old geezers shooting each other, to the more insane mad pirate Captain who lives on some slave ship steam hauler, this film has nowhere to go. Sadly wasted are Pleasance, in a film he made only for liquor money and Nero, who could have picked a better writer and director than his old friend. Everything about the picture looks cheap, the effects, the boats, the costumes and we don't really get a sense that a story is being told, just pointless bad vs good archetypes. Avoid this nonsense at all costs.
Customer Rating: Summary: Not as bad as some say Comment: Yes,this is a flawed film.Yes,it has moments which stretch the believability quotient quite a bit.And yes,even as the ONLY official sequel to Corbucci's groundbreaking original,it seems to have little to do with it's forefather.But this film has its good points.First off,it looks good...the colombian location (inexplicable perhaps)has a beautiful feel.Django has become (again,inexplicably out of character perhaps)a man with more of a conscience and more of a heart...hes a monk now!Yet it's not unbelievable that 20 years and a daughter could soften a guy.Django(not out of character) is still killing racists and protecting innocent women (as well as children this time around) The death symbolism is still pretty potent (this time he carries his machine gun around in a hearse) It has great action sequences and effectively ominous music.It's got great costumes..(those guys in the graveyard in the black sombreros and black ponchos sure knew how to dress!)It has "Genre Icons" Franco Nero and William Berger(Berger's part is WAY too short,but it was great to see him).Suspend your disbelief (of course I don't believe you can dig up a machine gun after it's been buried for 20 years and seconds after digging it up kill 5 gauchos with it. No rust either!)and enjoy it! ... Customer Rating: Summary: Django -- And NERO -- Strike Again! Comment: This is one of the rare cases where a sequel proves far superior to the original. Where the original film 'Django' fell short in characterization and plot, the follow-up proves to be not only a powerful action film, but also a solid, entertaining action feature as well. Franco Nero gives a worn but passionate performance of an ex-gunfighter who has seen too much death, but must bring his trusty weapons out of storage to stop murderous slave-traders. This whole movie, from beginning to end, had a surreal, other-wordly quality that makes it all seem like a waking nightmare. Scenes are filled with eerie fog, silent, slowly starving slaves and sudden, explosive brutality. Portions of this film remind you of Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now' without actually stealing from it. And the opening title sequence is one of the BEST I've seen in any movie for the last several years. The Anchor Bay tape is beautiful -- great, clean picture and sound, although the actual content of the film dosen't lend itself to a lot of color. And the interview with Nero at the end is revealing and insightful, and makes you want to hear more from star Nero, who seems like quite a decent guy. Overall ,a powerful, creepy film -- a rarity for a western. A super film at a great price! Anchor Bay does it again!
